Automated Patient Safety Ordering System

This submission addresses the development of a Clinical Decision Support (CDS) capability designed to enhance medication safety when used in conjunction with existing and/or new Military Health Systems (MHS) Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE), Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and Pharmacy Data Transaction System (PDTS) capabilities. The envisioned CDS system will monitor HL7 messages and use a rule-based engine combined with data mining functionality to generate alerts that will facilitate: 1) drug reconciliations across the spectrum of care, 2) drug contraindication screening using patient-specific data; 3) monitoring for therapeutic failure associated with medications; 4) dosage checking; and 5) ensuring that corollary orders are written as needed. Patient-specific data to be included in dosing and corollary order-class rules include allergies, age, weight, GFR, liver functions, concomitant medications and co-morbidities. The CDS architecture will be “loosely coupled” to clinical data sources and applications facilitating the reuse of the capability with any existing Hospital Information System. The CDS will also incorporate powerful yet easy-to-use tools to tailor/create new rules manually as well as a feature to automate the importation of medication knowledge as best evidence evolves and changes from “Structured Product Labeling” standard-based descriptions routinely maintained and published by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA).